A photo of Merthyr’s Cyfarthfa Castle has been voted the winner of St Tydfil Shopping Centre’s Pride of Merthyr 2019 photography competition.
The stunning photo taken by Jade Scott and titled ‘Even when life is turned upside down it can still be beautiful’ was chosen following a public vote on the shopping centre’s Facebook page. The centre initially invited the community to submit photos of their favourite place in the local area, before the Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil, Councillor Howard Barrett, joined the shopping centre’s manager to whittle the 168 entries down to a final 10.
A total of 1,844 votes were received with Jade’s photo being ‘liked’ 436 times.
Jade, who is currently setting up her own photography business, said of her picture:
“Cyfarthfa Castle is such a special local landmark and is much-loved by everybody, but instead of taking a standard photo, I wanted to do something different to encourage people to look at it in a different way. I’m shocked to have won, especially as the other nine photos chosen as finalists were amazing, so thank you to everyone who voted for my picture, and thank you to St Tydfil Shopping Centre. It’s a great competition which highlights our beautiful town.”
Jade was presented with a £75 Amazon voucher by the Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil and Julie Calderbank, Operations Manager at St Tydfil Shopping Centre, which she will use to purchase items for her new business. Jade’s photo will now go on display in the Civic Centre.
Julie Calderbank commented:
“Congratulations to Jade for being voted as the winner – her photo is stunning. This is the fourth time we’ve run the Pride of Merthyr competition and, once again, the entries we received were fantastic; the 10 chosen as finalists are still available to view on our Facebook page.”